by J. J. McAvoy
“Yes,” he replied.
“And I won’t forget?”
“No. Sometimes we have to pay for other peoples mistakes along with our own.”
“Do we ever stop paying?” I looked to him when we reached the stoplight.
He sighed. “You never stop paying, Cora. If you do, it means you’re either dead or dying. I never want to see you like this again.”
“It’s the SpongeBob pants, isn’t it? Not doing it for you?”
A grin spread across his lips. “I’m more of Mr. Krabs type of man, I mean what the hell is a sponge doing at the bottom of the sea?”
My giggle turned into a full-blown laugh. It felt good to laugh.
“I missed hearing that,” he whispered softly.
I missed laughing.
I turned away from the gatepost when we got to Raven Hill. He stopped right outside my house and I opened the door for myself before he could get out.
“Thank you, Declan. But…”
“I understand.” He frowned as he closed his door.
“And you don’t have to take care of—”
“I said I would and I will. Don’t think of it as a favor. Think of it as a goodbye present or an ‘I’m sorry’ present…either one works.” He handed me an envelope through the window.
“What is it?”
“You’ll understand. Now go in before you scare your neighbors,” he said and I glanced around to see a few people coming out.
“Bye.”
“Goodbye, Coraline Wilson.”
I wanted to stay, even knowing everything I knew, I didn’t want him to go. But I took a step back and headed inside quickly. Resting my back against the door, I took a deep breath. Then, as I realized where I was, I bolted up the stairs.
“Imani!” I screamed.
“In here!” she called from her room.
Walking into her room, she had a suitcase on her bed, and she was busy throwing all of her things—my things—into it.
“What are you doing?”
“I already talked to Mom and Dad, I’m going to leave until this blows over.”
“Imani, he died. There’s not a wind in all the world strong enough to blow this over.”
She froze as her brown eyes glanced at me, then she started packing faster.
“Imani!”
“What?!” she screamed as she threw a shirt into her bag. “Coraline, I was drunk and high! I will go to prison for like life! I can’t, Cora.”
“So what? You want me to take the fall for this? They think it was me!”
“They do?” She relaxed as she reached up to grab me. “Coraline, that’s perfect—”
“In what way is this perfect?”
“Coraline, you’re a model citizen. You have money. You’ll be fine—”
I couldn’t take it anymore. Just as I was about to slap some sense into her, a hand grabbed onto mine.
“What the fuck you thinking you doing?” Otis asked as he held onto me with his good hand. His face was still swollen, and there was a large bruise on the left side of his face.
“Let go and get out of my house.” I tried to pull my hand from his grasp, but he held on tighter.
“Who the fuck do you think you talking to? Richie-rich?”
“Otis, it’s fine.”
“You better watch yourself, bitch.” He sneered as he let me go.
Rubbing my wrist, I turned to her as she zipped up her bag. “I thought you both broke up.”
“It was a misunderstanding.” She smiled at him as he grabbed some more of her things—my things.
“Imani,” I whispered trying to stay calm. “He’s a gangster, an actual one. He needs to go—”
“Give us a few minutes, princess, and we’ll both be out of here.”
I tried to touch her, but she pushed my hands away.
“Imani, he will hurt you.” I tried to reason with her.
“What do you know?” She pushed my shoulder on her way out. “Babe, I’m ready.”
He nodded as he followed her out of the room.
I knew a lot more than I she thought. I knew how badly it felt to want to go and how badly you shouldn’t. Watching them walk down the stairs I didn’t know what to say.
“Babe, how much is that worth.” Otis stopped to grab the Greek vase from the cabinet in the living room.
“Put it down.” I rushed behind him.
“I’ve about had with you,” he snapped at me.
“Otis, it belonged to her parents, just leave it.” Imani pulled at his arm.
He kept glaring at me, and then he smiled. “My bad.”
“No!”
He let drop out of his hands and it shattered as it hit the ground. I bent down and touched the larger pieces as Imani tried to pull him out the door. Taking a few pieces, I threw them at him. “You son of bitch!”
“You little cunt!”
He smacked me so hard I fell onto the ground, and as I tried to brace myself, I felt the shards of the vase bite deeply into my palms. “Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to?”
“Otis, stop! Let’s go.”
“Imani, you step out that door with him, you are dead to me! I swear to God I will never forgive you.” I wiped the blood from my corner of my eye.
“I don’t need you, Coraline,” she replied. “Otis, come on!”
But he stood there glaring at me until she came and pulled him back.
“Get out of my house!” I hissed at them.
Annoyed, he grabbed the entire shelf and pulled it down. It crashed right next to me, forcing me to back up quickly.
“Don’t find yourself in Southbend, princess, or you might not be as lucky as you were today.”
“GET OUT!” I screamed. “GET THE FUCK OUT!”
“Fuck you!” he shouted as they got into the car and drove off.
This couldn’t be real. This couldn’t be my life.
The envelope Declan had given me was on the ground. I hadn’t let go of it until now thanks to Otis. Reaching for it, I broke the wax seal and dumped everything out onto the floor next to me.
Three passports.
9 black cards. No names. Just numbers.
One ticket to Greece.
And pictures. Our pictures together. Pictures we’d taken when we went zip-lining and swimming with the sharks. There was a note on one of the pictures.
I don’t want you to be afraid or chose me because you have no other choice. So run, Coraline. Keep having fun. My uncle will let you stay until tomorrow night. But if you stay past that, he will take you as a threat.
Thank you and be safe.
Declan.
I noticed all too clearly that he didn’t write ‘PS. I love you’ this time.
“What the hell happened?”
I glanced up as my uncle came inside.
“Your daughter killed someone, and then she ran off with her boyfriend. But not before he broke my mother’s vase and got a good hit in.”
He looked around the room in shock before looking to me.
“I heard about the accident from your aunt. It won’t look good for the company if this gets out. We will lose clients. I know a guy at the police station, and for the right price he can make this look like a freak accident. Then we can donate to—”
“You’re not going to ask me if I’m alright?” I questioned softly. “I’m covered in blood siting on the ground on. Shouldn’t the first question you ask me be, ‘are you all right?’ If not as your niece, then at least as your ATM. Shouldn’t that be the normal reaction to this situation?”
He paused and I guessed it only dawned on him this wasn’t okay. He looked me over as he opened his mouth and closed it again, like a fish.
“I’ll give you the choice. Me or the bank.”
“What?” He paused.
“Which one?”
“The bank,” he replied without even having to think.
I nodded, not even surprised or hurt.
Ever since my parents die
d, I had been alone. Surrounded by people, but alone. What was the point in being a good person if you just ended up being run over by a bad one? Lifting up a picture of me in Cancun, I stared at myself. I’d been so happy then. It felt like it had been forever since that time, but it wasn’t, it was still waiting for me. If everyone was going being to be selfish, if everyone was just going to do what they wanted anyway, then why couldn’t I?
There were three choices in front of me.
Lifting the passport I stood up and walked past him.
“You really going to give it to me?” he yelled after me, but I didn’t answer.
First shower.
Then pack.
THIRTEEN
“Life has to end, she said. Love doesn't.”
―Mitch Albom
DECLAN
Two weeks.
You think I would’ve been over it. Over her, but once you knew what it was like to be truly happy, to feel like you were standing right next to the sun without getting burned, how can anyone go back to being in the dark?
“Declan?”
I glanced up at Evelyn. She and everyone else were staring at me. It felt like the first night when I came to live here. Everyone kept hovering over me at dinner.
“You alright?” she asked me kindly.
“He’s fine,” Sedric answered as he cut into his steak.
“I would prefer to hear it from him.” She glared at him. She was the only one that could get away with that.
“I’m fine,” I repeated.
“See?” Sedric chewed. “Let me know when she’s gone.”
“Of course.” I nodded as I placed my fork down. “May I be excus—?”
“Master Callahan?” Our butler stepped into the dining room, arms folded behind his back.
“What is it, Samuel?” Sedric placed his fork down.
“There’s a woman here for Master Declan,” he said looking to me. “A Miss Coraline Wilson.”
I got up so quickly that the chair fell over. I was out the door, knowing that Samuel wouldn’t have let her inside without permission. The rain soaked my clothes, but I didn’t care. She stood staring up at the house under a green umbrella, dressed in a peach-colored lace dress. A taxi was parked right behind her.
“Cora?” I grabbed her attention as I stepped in front of her.
She lifted the umbrella higher for the both of us to stand under.
“Hi.” She smiled.
“I don’t understand?” I was afraid to get too happy.
She pulled out a passport and handed it to me.
“You told me to have fun, but I don’t know how to do that without you, so you’re going to have to keep teaching me. I want stamps too.”
I took the passport from her. But she needed to be sure.
“Coraline, I can’t change who am or what I do—”
“I know. I’ll do what everyone else does and look away. Is that good enough?”
All I could do was nod as I grabbed the sides of her face and kissed her the way I had dreamt of for the last two weeks. She kissed me back, but only shortly before breaking away. I noticed that one of her eyes seemed a little swollen. As I gently brushed my thumb against it, she winced.
“You’re going to ruin my make up,” she said softly.
“What happened to you?” I asked trying to stay calm in front of her.
“I’m fine—”
“Coraline, you being here means that you are mine. You are part of my family now. We don’t hide our pain from each other.”
She sighed. “Otis and I got into a fight when he left with Imani.”
“Is everything alright out here?”
Turning back, Sedric stood at the door with his hands in pockets as his hard gaze shifted between us. I took both the umbrella and her hand before I led her up the stairs.
“Dad, this is my girlfriend, Coraline Wilson.”
His eyebrow raised as he moved aside. “Welcome to Callahan Manor, Ms. Wilson.”
“Thank you, sir.” She stepped inside.
Evelyn, Neal, Olivia, and Liam all stood in front of the grand staircase and waited for Sedric to speak again.
“Ms. Wilson, this is my wife, Evelyn, I’m sure you remember her from the church,” he stated as Evelyn walked forward.
“Of course she remembers me!” she said to him as she hugged Coraline. “Welcome, dear. You look beautiful.”
“Thank you, ma’am—”
“Just Evelyn, we were in the middle of dinner. Have you eaten?”
“Not yet.”
Evelyn frowned. “In this house, Coraline, we always eat dinner together. If I didn’t force them to, they’d stuff their faces with fries and burgers until they died of heart attacks. Come now.”
Coraline looked back at me and I nodded to her as she headed into the dining room. Olivia kissed Neal on the cheek before she turned and followed as well, leaving only the men in the front of the house.
Sedric stepped in front me. “She’s yours now. Do you know what that means?”
I smiled as I nodded. “Protect, live, and die for her.”
“I better not hear you say that you rushed into this later,” he muttered as he squeezed my shoulder and headed back into the dining room.
“Dad,” I called out and he froze before he turned to face me. “Otis of the Seven Bloods, he hit her. What can I do?” I knew he already had a plan for the Seven Bloods.
“After dinner you, your brothers, along with the rest of the clan, will pay a visit to Southbend. You know what happens to Mr. Emerson,” he stated.
“Finally, something I’m good at,” Liam said as he placed his arm around my shoulder. “I really can’t deal with all this lovey-dovey shit. It’s like watching Romeo and Juliet on repeat.”
“Don’t they die in the end?” Neal questioned.
Liam rolled his eyes. “Don’t we all die in the end?”
“Well, while you two bitch, I’m going to go eat.” I stepped into the dining room as a maid placed a plate in front of Coraline who had been seated right next to me.
Sitting down, she looked to me.
I took her hand and kissed the back of it. “I’m happy you’re here.”
“Me too.”
“So, Coraline, where did you go to school?” Evelyn asked. I was sure she already knew the answer, Sedric had most likely done an extensive background check on her, but I was glad that she was trying to make Coraline relax.
She wasn’t completely comfortable, but I knew that that would soon pass. It felt like just the beginning.
***
She lay in the middle of my bed, and I wanted to just stare at her until the sun came up. Moving to her side, I kissed her cheek as I sat on the edge of bed.
“PS—I love you,” she whispered, her eyes barely open.
“PPS—I love you more.”
“Where are you going?” She sat up.
“An errand for my uncle.” I didn’t want to lie to her anymore.
Her mouth opened like she was going to say something, but before she could, she closed it and lay back down.
“What’s going to happen with Mr. Pierre?”
“The report will say that the brakes on your car weren’t working, and that Mr. Pierre suffered a heart attack as he tried to help you get out. No one will question it.”
“Okay. Please be safe out there,” she whispered.
“Always,” I promised as I kissed her cheek again. “I’ll be back before the sun is up.”
“I’ll be here.” She yawned.
She had no idea how wonderful it felt to know that.
Stepping out of my room, my uncle stood there already waiting.
“We’re good Catholics. We can’t have her living here and not married to you,” he said as he handed me a small box.
Opening it, I saw a raindrop shaped diamond set in a white gold ring.
“It was your mother’s.”
“Thank you.”
Just like that, he took it back and s
napped it shut.
“Don’t you have something to attend to first? You don’t want to lose it in the chaos. You are taking Liam after all.”
“See you when I get back,” I said, already walking towards the back of the house.
When I got there, there were already four large black Jeeps waiting. Liam threw me a pair of gloves and a mask as I hopped up into the back of one of the Jeeps.
Placing the mask around my mouth, no one spoke as they pulled out. Slipping on the gloves, an AK-47 was handed to me. I checked the mag before I strapped it back in.
Taking out my second phone, I sent a mass text containing a photo of Otis. I wanted him alive so that I could kill the motherfucker myself. The men beside me were dressed in all-black and they nodded to me.
Southbend was the shithole of Chicago, stripped cars on blocks littered the streets, and the only people that came outside were junkies, pimps, hookers, and the people who were looking for any of the above. The police had basically given up on it. Which meant that a house could finish burning to the ground before anyone showed up.
The Seven Bloods had taken it over, and made themselves kings here. Maybe that was why they’d forgotten who fucking owned this city.
Patrick, who was in the lead car, parked and cut all the lights. The three other Jeeps copied him. I came out and stared up at the old, run-down house with the boarded up windows, and rusted front door. Walking up the worn-out wood stairs, I rang the doorbell and was somewhat surprised when it worked.
“Who in the fuck?” someone yelled before opening the door. He stood in an old pair of jeans that hung off his waist and a wife beater vest.
“Is Otis at home?” I asked kindly as I lifted the gun in my hand.
His eyes widened as he tried to make run for it towards the back, but I shot him twice before he could turn to run.
Two naked women ran out of the kitchen screaming.
“Otis!” I shouted as they hugged each other.
“Upstairs!”
The men behind me shot them as I made my way upstairs. One of his men came at me with a knife. Moving out the way, I grabbed his arm and flipped him onto his back as I shot him right in the stomach.
“Gun beats knife,” I told him as I kicked in the first door. The man there reached for his gun, but I shot his arm and then his head.
